In Beirut, the Lebanese will see the battle fought with new tools once MP Walid Jumblatt makes a final decision on where he stands.

If he decides to back a nominee for the premiership in collaboration with the March 14 coalition, we will be set for a confrontation that goes beyond what the Lebanese experienced between June 2006 and June 2008.

If Jumblatt chooses to remain where he is at present, he knows that the country will face a fresh period of siege by the US and its European and Gulf allies, as well as another round of civil violence that March 14 groups have been rehearsing since they were ousted from power two years ago.

The third option is for both Jumblatt and Mikati to put their parliamentary votes at the disposal of the president, who would then try to reach an understanding with Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri.

The Lebanese had best get used to a period of caretaker government, or no government at all. They can expect more chaos and instability too. There will also be big questions to face as the number of Syrian refugees in the country climbs to two million.

This is all to be accompanied by the launching of a new phase in the global war on Syria, starting with the Arab summit in Doha. The US-European-Gulf axis has succeeded in dragging the world into a new round of violence and anarchy, all in the name of taking Syria away from Bashar al-Assad.

Those behind this phase no longer care about their public face; they have revealed the true state of the Syrian opposition groups they sponsor. They have brought them totally under their control. So Moaz al-Khatib can protest and resign, Free Syrian Army fighters and officers can object, and opposition figures can complain as much as they like in the press or on TV. What matters is that in conjunction with this decision, the following must be done:

– Sponsorship of opposition forces from Turkey to be escalated. This seeks to impose new military and intelligence chiefs on the armed groups, providing them with new kinds of weapons, and bringing them more firmly under the control of the foreign capitals concerned. A central military objective has been defined: to fully occupy Aleppo as a prelude to proclaiming the new Syrian state in the north.– The world presented with a fait accompli in the form of an “interim government.” This reflects the total submission of the Islamist opposition, be it Muslim Brotherhood or Salafi, to Gulf leadership, and the collusion of military commanders on the ground. The idea is for this body to be able to request foreign assistance in various forms.– The Syrian government’s allies, whether in Iraq, Iran or Lebanon, are to be threatened by means of additional funding for civil conflicts that are liable to preoccupy them.

The conspiracy against Syria being hatched at the Doha summit is a massive gamble, as well as a historic crime. The Gulf sheikhs, in conjunction with Western and Arab capital, are launching a step-by-step process of partitioning Syria. (The translator ommited Israel)